Being Told, Make The Game Fun For The Players

The hero facing down a dragon

You've heard it before, "A game master has to make a game fun for the players." But what does that mean and how do you do it?

Game mastering (GMing) with the understanding every player considers their character to be "the" hero is the point about focusing on the characters, or the game need to be fun for the players. In many ways this seems like an obvious statement. Many systems talk about designing your hero, not your character. But the concept needs to be taken just a little further to get the full understanding of the advice of focusing on the players' characters

Role-playing games (RPGs) are a series of events being worked through, the storyline of the game. If the players' characters are not the ones working through events, they are going to lose interest. If the characters are on the sideline while the plot is unfolding, why do you need them? This hit me many years ago with an adventure released for the Ravenloft demi-plane in second edition.

The adventure had some great stuff early on, but ended with the party being intentionally overwhelmed at the end. It was designed with so the party could not accomplish the final combat and a non-player character had to step in. The module had several pages of narrative for the GM to be read to the players. I remember this was to set up for another adventure. In our group that next adventure was never played because most of the players felt cheated by the ending. And the rest were disappointed.

They didn't feel cheated because they didn't get treasure, they felt cheated because they weren't allowed to play the adventure. They felt cheated by a twist ending leaving them as an audience while the action took place. This wasn't a mercy save situation, it was planned. When they were removed from making any further decisions they got bored.

If you're sitting and watching everyone else plays, why be there. I have seen too many players around a table check out, more often mentally, because they weren't being included in the action. This is where a GM has to work at providing a balance for every one of the other players. I say work at because there are encounters designed for a specific class of character, or a specific character in play.

Some encounters are going to be balanced to specific types of characters. High combat encounters are not going to be good for non-combative characters, and vise-a- versa. This also applies to particular types of players. There are people who like to play a specific type of character, or have particular traits. And, if they are not given the opportunity to play their style of game, they are also going to get bored with the action.

I have seen where this has led to players leaving the group, and in one instance when a player was asked to leave a group. I don't think that is what most gaming groups are going for, at least I hope it's not.

Remembering the concept that each person is the hero of their own story helps to provide an encounter, adventure, and campaign fitting to all of the players and the characters they bring to the table. I know there will be encounters focused on a particular character or player. I think most people understand that is going to happen at times. When the game goes that direction, make sure you give a balance of action to the players left out of the encounter.

This can be done by providing action in another encounter to the people who were sitting out, or, if you feel you can do it, provide some other action the other players are working on. A good way I have seen this handled is the combination of the straight up attack while the party is backed up against a trap. The party had to defend one direction to give the thief time to allow for their escape. You can also be running two encounters at the same time. This is harder to do, but it can be done. Shadowrunusually has several levels of action taking place at the same time. (I have added this idea into my writing list for a later article.)

When everyone has an opportunity to be involved, you have a good time. When you are unable to get everyone involved to the level they like, let them know you saw it happening. Telling them allows them to know you saw the problem and they don't go away thinking you were planning on ignoring them, and plan on continuing to ignore them. You can even let them know there are plot points coming up designed for them.

Don't worry about covering every player in every session. For me that just leads to additional frustration. Just keep an eye on what is happening and just keep tweaking and adjusting what you are doing. An easy way to tell you are losing a player is when they are doing something else during an encounter, or they stop taking any actions. The plot line of the adventure shouldn't be strict that you can't make adjustments on the fly. You can even just drop in small points where the player has the opportunity of making comments or some sideline interest to keep them occupied.

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